Influential Texts
Below you will find a collections of influential texts that have helped shaped my passion of health, equity, and policy. These texts should allow you to begin to see the important connections that have shaped my undergraduate educational career, and my future perseverances. Click images to read more.
Starr, Paul, The Social Transformation of American Medicine. Basic Books, 1982. Print.
Starr’s 1982 literature lays out America’s entire history of medicine, the medical profession, hospitals, medical organizations and movements, insurance plans, and health care economy beginning in the 1700s. This book is important because it give a historical context of how America got itself into the healthcare problems that are present today, including health inequity. The medical profession was not always widely recognized and respected. Women used to be the primary caregivers until the profession grew in status. Hospitals originated in the 1860’s for charity, to give care to those who need it but cannot afford it, or do not have relatives with care provider experience. It lays out how our country’s rich history of wars and depressions shaped our medical history. Before groups like the American Medical Association created a code of ethics and fought for medical licensing in the late 1800’s, it was not uncommon for doctors to make up diagnosis for profit. However, before insurance was created, doctors could only get money from patients who had money, thus there was no medical care for the lower class. Politicians used to also be doctors, whereas today society needs to make sure politicians are not practicing medicine through their legislation. Starr shows the evolution of health care and how it turned into the profitable systematic business it is today, highlighting the bumps and turns we took along the way.
Starr’s 1982 literature lays out America’s entire history of medicine, the medical profession, hospitals, medical organizations and movements, insurance plans, and health care economy beginning in the 1700s. This book is important because it give a historical context of how America got itself into the healthcare problems that are present today, including health inequity. The medical profession was not always widely recognized and respected. Women used to be the primary caregivers until the profession grew in status. Hospitals originated in the 1860’s for charity, to give care to those who need it but cannot afford it, or do not have relatives with care provider experience. It lays out how our country’s rich history of wars and depressions shaped our medical history. Before groups like the American Medical Association created a code of ethics and fought for medical licensing in the late 1800’s, it was not uncommon for doctors to make up diagnosis for profit. However, before insurance was created, doctors could only get money from patients who had money, thus there was no medical care for the lower class. Politicians used to also be doctors, whereas today society needs to make sure politicians are not practicing medicine through their legislation. Starr shows the evolution of health care and how it turned into the profitable systematic business it is today, highlighting the bumps and turns we took along the way.